Big Man on Campus: Sexual Metaphor and College-Aged Men’s Language

Big Man on Campus:Sexual Metaphor and College-Aged Men’s Language Steven T. Lessner and Matthew Cox Under the advisement of Dr. Nancy C. DeJoy Michigan State University

Inspiration: • ideas for this presentation were generated in a coffee house late one night • began discussing how men in American society are expected to talk and what words, phrases or sayings constitute an “acceptable,” mainstream masculine discourse • dialogued how much of “acceptable”/mainstream American masculine discourse is aimed at promoting heterosexuality and also void of emotion • critically questioned how American men are viewed who break away from or reject traditionally masculine discourse • wondered how American college-age men feel emotionally and mentally when using typically masculine discourse (such as our students)

Grounding: These questions led us to examine some important texts to further develop our discussion and consequent research methodology…

Peter F. Murphy’s Studs, Tools, and the Family Jewels: Metaphors Men Live By Critically evaluates the use of “metaphors for men and by men” used in contemporary American society/culture (5). Murphy goes on to characterize these metaphors as ones that “men have created, have imagined, have imposed upon themselves” (5). Carefully framing how he defines metaphor for his study of masculine discourse throughout his text, Murphy writes that “these tropes [he examines] are not literary metaphors but rather the poetic language of regular people” (5). Murphy continues to describe these male metaphors he analyzes through borrowing Lakoff and Johnson’s phrase “conventional metaphors” (which they define as “reflect[ing] the values of a society and not independent of the metaphorical concepts used by that society”) (5).

Divides his text into five astute categorizations of sexual male metaphors: • Sex as Machine (such as “getting a nut off,” “hard-on”) • Sex as Work and Labor (such as “blow job,” “getting laid”) • Sex as Sport (such as “scoring,” “well hung”) • Sex as War and Conquest (such as “gang bang,” “pussy whipped”) • Sex as Exclusively Heterosexual (such as “faggot,” “stud”) Each offers a deep analysis of male sexual metaphors and their relentless promotion of violence against women and gay men. He also explores how these everyday metaphors isolate males from experiencing full, healthy emotions during sexual intimacies as well as sustainable friendships with other men.

Miriam Brody’s Manly Writing: Gender, Rhetoric, and the Rise of Composition Critically traces how gender has influenced rhetorical and written instruction. She highlights throughout her text how “manliness” (Preface, ix) has been promoted as a quality that all effectively persuasive writing regarded should have ever since Roman orator Quintilian professed that prose style should be “manly, noble, and chaste” (11). She points out that “Advising boys, and more recently girls too, how to write, men have for centuries imposed images of their best selves on descriptions of good writing: selves that are productive, coherent, virtuous and heroic; writing that is plain, forceful and true” (3). “Effeminate” writing (as the opposite of “manly”), however, has been seen as having: “uncertainty, vagueness, timidity” and has been described as “ornate, unconvincing, and sometimes deceitful” (Brody 3).

Closely analyzing rhetoric and writing instruction in ancient Rome, the “Plain Writing for Science” (Brody 39-53) movement of the Enlightenment Royal Society (1665) and the push for straightforward, “comprehensible” (Brody 133) prose in beginning land-grant universities of the United States, Brody makes the provocative argument that past compositionists such as William Strunk (1869-1946) E.B. White (1899-1985) and even the contemporary Peter Elbow at times “idealize good writing in a strength of purpose radiating outward in physical vigor and health and weak writing in illness and unconfident equivocation” (Brody 133). Brody concludes her piece with suggested revisions for a more fluid interpretation of gender and writing; quoting Julia Kristeva as writing “all speaking subjects have within themselves a certain bisexuality which is precisely the possibility to explore all the sources of that which posits a meaning as well as that which multiplies, pulverizes and revives it” (206).

Methodology of Survey: We decided to sample college-age (18-25) males concerning their use of and comfort level with using specific male metaphors Our questions were influenced heavily by Murphy’s text Studs, Tools, and the Family Jewels: Metaphors Men Live By Three metaphors chosen for our study from Murphy’s text were “getting a nut off/busting a nut, pussy-whipped/whipped, faggot/fag” Questions were asked about use by self, use by others, and encounters in pop-culture (tv, movies, music, stand-up comedy, etc.).

Snowball sampling - The snowball sample survey method uses email/online contact and asks those taking the survey to then forward the survey on to friends/acquaintances. • Selecting a sample - We chose acquaintances in the preferred age range but did not stipulate on who they should forward to (thus producing some results from those outside of our target demographic). • We used surveymonkey (www.surveymonkey.com) as our tool which allowed us to set up a multi-question, anonymous survey accessed though a URL in an email. • Responses/demographic data-- The snowball sample was limited in its success. We had 23 total responses during a two-week period. We hypothesized a bit about this response (spring break, text heavy email with IRB/human subjects wording, etc.). We chose to view this as a possible pilot study for a more expansive reworking of this survey later.

We’re going to give you a quick trip through the highlights of the results and discuss a bit of what we saw in the male responses, as well as how these set against female responses (both in the 18-to-25 demographic).

Term 1: “busting a nut” 18 to 25 year old men mostly “seldom” used the term (60%) and also claimed to be mostly “uncomfortable” (40%) -- the remaining percentages are divided between “highly comfortable,” “comfortable,” and “neither comfortable nor uncomfortable.” Most men used the term with “members of the same sex” or “close friends” and in “casual one-on-one or group conversation” (not at a job or in class).

“busting a nut” The majority of those men surveyed responded that they had used this term to describe another person or his/her behavior. Most respondents also expressed an ambivalence about whether or not their use of this term for describing another person was negative or positive (75% responding with this type of ambivalence). Many of the males surveyed also expressed a noticeable uncertainty when answering if this term had been used to describe them or their behavior (40% responded with “unsure”).

“busting a nut” 80% of male respondents said that they had encountered this term in popular culture “infrequently.” Yet, of those male respondents who did encounter the term, 50% said they mostly encountered it in television and 75% said stand-up comedy.

“busting a nut” -- female responses Of the females (all 18-25 years of age) that responded, 83.3% conveyed that they never used the term. Also expressed a high ambivalence with their level of comfort with the term- 66.7% responded that they were “neither comfortable nor uncomfortable” when using the term. Women were most likely to use the term with members of the opposite sex and with close friends in casual one-on-one conversation and in casual group conversation. The majority of women had not used the term to describe a person or their behavior.

“pussy whipped/whipped” The college-age men surveyed did use this term- with the majority of the respondents answering “frequently” (60%) and also some stating “weekly” (20%). The respondents were very diverse concerning whom they most likely used this term with -- many claiming members of the same sex, members of the opposite sex, close friends, acquaintances and family members in casual one-on-one conversation or in casual group conversation. Men also seemed very comfortable using this term- 40% answering “highly comfortable” and 40% answering “comfortable.”

“pussy whipped/whipped” 100% of those responding said they had used this term to describe a person or his/her behavior. The majority of the men said they had used the term to negatively describe another person (50% answered highly negative and 25% answered somewhat negative). 100% also conveyed that the term “pussy whipped” had been used to describe themselves or their behavior.

“pussy whipped/whipped” • The responses regarding encounters of this term in popular culture were very different - infrequently (25%), occasionally (25%), frequently (25%) and very frequently (25%). • Stand-up comedy, television and motion pictures were the media areas where this term was mostly seen used by the men.

“pussy whipped/whipped” Of the females that responded, 66.7% said they used the term “seldom” (have used before, but do not use often) way. Overwhelmingly, women seemed “neither comfortable nor uncomfortable” with the term (60%) in comparison to the high level of comfort expressed by their male counterparts. Women were most likely to use the term with members of the opposite sex and with close friends. 75% of women surveyed used this term to describe a person or his/her behavior.

“faggot/fag” • Men answered that they used the term “faggot” both in a seldom sense (50%), frequently (25%) and also weekly (25%). • Half of men (50%) surveyed said they were “comfortable” with the term, while another 50% conveyed they were “highly uncomfortable” using the term. • Men either used this term with close friends (50%), with acquaintances (25%) and also with members of the same sex (25%) in casual one-on-one conversation and in casual group conversation.

“faggot/fag” • 100% of respondents said they had used the term to describe a person with 75% conveying it had been used in a “highly negative” way and 25% relating that this term had been used in a “somewhat negative” way. • Three quarters also reported that “faggot” had been used to describe them with all saying also that this term had been used to describe them negatively.

“faggot/fag” • This term was encountered at high levels by those surveyed in popular culture with 50% of the respondents replying “very frequently” and 25% replying “frequently.” • Television and Motion Pictures were the two types of media most cited as using the term by men surveyed.

“faggot/fag” • Of the women surveyed, half reported they used the term “frequently” with a third also stating they “never” used the term. • Levels of comfort with the term were very diverse with women conveying they were “comfortable” (20%), “neither comfortable nor uncomfortable” (20%), “uncomfortable (40%)” and “highly uncomfortable” (20%). Women were most likely to use this term with close friends and in casual one-on-one conversation.

Thoughts on the survey: What metaphors might be more useful to use? How might we make it easier for those surveyed to help compile a greater response?

How do we make sense of these male responses (and in light of the female responses)? For example, the term “pussy whipped/whipped” is used frequently by men and with comfort, yet women interestingly seem neutral about the term. With the term “faggot/fag” men show a tendency to either feel “comfortable” or “highly uncomfortable” but among women, most responded simply “uncomfortable” (but not highly so). What does this type of conflict and ambivalence mean?

Our respondents seem to be viewing language as highly influenced by gender norms of discourse… • Overwhelmingly, both men and women were only comfortable talking in close groups within their own gender -- does this mean that they only feel safe using these terms within their own gender?

Looking at this “highly gendered” aspect of language (specifically metaphoric terms), is a linguistic “bisexuality” possible as Kristeva advocates? Does such intra-gender metaphor serve a purpose, create a reality?

Thank You!

Big Man on Campus: Sexual Metaphor and College-Aged Men’s Language